The Blues assistant manager Ray Wilkins told the club‘s website on Sunday that he believed the Nigeria international could be whatever he wanted to be in the defensive midfield position.
Wilkins and Carlo Ancelotti spoke with the former Lyn Oslo player before the season to encourage him to make more daring passes from deep, and Mikel has responded with some outstanding performances.
”John can basically become whatever he wants in my opinion,” Wilkins was quoted as saying. ”He has a lovely range of passing, he‘s strong as an ox, reads the game exceptionally well and Carlo and myself just asked him to hit a few more progressive passes and he‘s done that this year.
”He has hit some very good forward passes and he‘s done really well. May it continue this season.”
The 23-year-old is regularly used in a more advanced role by his country but Wilkins believes his anchoring job at Chelsea is one that suits him.
”He does play in a different situation with us but it‘s a situation he enjoys, when you‘ve got Essien, Lampard or Ramires on the side of you then it‘s quite a privileged position that he plays,” Wilkins said.
”He is quite happy to be doing what he is doing. I think when you‘re at John‘s age and you see the group of players you‘re within, you‘re doing really well.”
One thing he would like to see however is a higher goal ratio – Mikel has not scored since the 2006/07 season – and believes he could take note of Michael Essien‘s recent goalscoring exploits.
By Kazeem Busari
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